Comments on: Round-Robin Gamemastering

By: Animeted

Animeted — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:33:14 +0000

A solution my friends and I have used, specifically with DnD 4e is splitting up the tasks of a GM among multiple peoople. One person will come up with the story, and roleplay the NPCs. One of us will design any maps, coming up with environmental details, history of the location, etc. One person will come up with the encounters, i.e. which monsters we will use, etc. One person actually plays the monsters in combat, taking their turns, etc, and finally, we have some one pick the treasure. This approach works very well for us, because we assign based on player style, but sometimes switch it up. For instance, I prefer tactical combat, so I frequently run the combat. Another one of our members is an architect, so he handles all the building stuff. We have a theatre member– guess who handles the NPCs? Anyway, just an idea for playing without a “full” DM, that we have used before.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:36:50 +0000

Yes — it seems the Echo Chamber effect isn’t always intentional!

By: jatori

jatori — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:36:54 +0000

Great bloggers think alike, do they not? I recently posted about one of the results of such a round-robin 'campaign' back at my blog. Each group always seems to have their own spin or take on the concept. For example, my group didn't even try to focus on a main plot of any sort. jatori's last blog post: Charity

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:05:18 +0000

I played with this method for about 14 years with a group I was in. Each GM got a chance to run a series of scenarios (enough to finish his part of a story) in the world. Granted certain NPC villains were the exclusive property of one person (uh oh, Chris is running – I bet we’ll run into “Vichama” again!) but everything else was fair game. It made for some very fun and interesting gaming.

Rob’s last blog post: Pathfinder D&D – A slightly deeper analysis

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:50:32 +0000

@Jonathan: Thanks. It is a variation, of sorts… I don’t think I’ve ever seen any group but mine run this way, but it’s a fun and very different experience. You really do have to enjoy the improvisational GMing style, though.

I read a blog post recently (just the other day, because I commented on the coincidence — I’d had this article written and queued at the time) where someone did something similar to this, but switching GMs every room (or, I’d extrapolate, every encounter). That’s crazy, and I want to try it. I wish I could remember where I’d read it — I spent some time going through the RPG Bloggers links looking for the post, but I couldn’t find it again. ;.;

By: jonathan

jonathan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:39:41 +0000

this is a bit like Troupe-style or entourage style gaming. I've actually been collecting articles related to this on my Google notebook (LINKED HERE). I plan on writing up something for The Core Mechanic related to this topic soon, but i'm waiting on a few articles about this that appeared in in OLD White Wolf and Polyhedron magazines - which I found and bought on ebay recently. Nice post! I've also added it to the same notebook I mentioned. jonathan's last blog post: RPG CARNIVAL LOGO CONTEST - Win Prizes, Bragging Rights, and a Free Critical Hit Coupon